Bequia Grenadines (again)

The trip to Bequia took a lot longer than we anticipated. We were beating (slamming) the whole way due to the steep short waves and then got headed by a wind shift on our final approach having gone wide out to sea.

We arrived at Bequia after nightfall and were greeted by Afrika who put us straight on a huge mooring buoy, despite us already refusing another boat boy on the way into the bay.
The next morning we arranged an even better deal with Afrika (than previously), $100ec for 4 nights.

Aside from meeting Otahi (James & Freya) and Luna (Daniel) again, there isn’t much to report about our second stay in Bequia (8 nights).

We did decide to make a rain catcher out of some old spinnaker sail we blagged from the local sail maker with Freya giving me a sewing lesson.

Despite it looking functional we haven’t actually got it to work with any degree of success yet.

Over an evening of Rum punch we also said our final farewells to Daniel who plans to continue south along the Atlantic coast with the intention of rounding Cape Horn (albeit the wrong way against wind and tide!). We agreed to meet up on Easter Island in 14 months time, the things we promise when drunk eh…
Good Luck Luna and I wish you all the fair winds the Gods can muster - Don’t upset them!

I also came up with another recipe named (kind of) after Kat.

Boo’s Batty Fruit Bread.
2 Cups Flour (general purpose)
1tsp Salt
1tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Yeast (instant)
150ml Water (room temp)
1 Cup Mixed Dried Fruit
2 tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tbsp Honey
More Cinnamon & Brown Sugar to sprinkle on top.

Mix dry ingredients, stir in water & honey, knead, leave in warm, draught free place for 1 hour, knead again and place in pan, leave 30 mins. Dust the top with (more) brown sugar and Cinnamon. Add approx 1 inch of water to pressure cooker. Place pan on trivet in pressure cooker so pan stays above the water. Bring to boil. Place on smallest burner at lowest setting for 25 minutes. Turn out and let cool & dry.

I also think diced fresh apple would work well to make an Apple and Cinnamon loaf…

As water was running low I decided to top up the main tank from our jerry cans and after checking the water in the first can, didn’t think twice about adding the other two. Big mistake! I had forgotten that our previous visit to Bequia we had 2 jerry cans filled by the local Dive shop.

After the final drop was added to the main tank, I happened to look into the can and saw that the last two cans had green growth inside. Aaarrghh…!!! I was pretty sure it was just algae growth and nothing too bad and that it would probably just die off in the main tank due to a lack of light. It did however, mean that we were both now paranoid about drinking the water from the main tank without boiling it, so we only used our fourth jerry can (27L) of fresh water for cold drinks. We will bleach the tanks as soon as possible.

We tried to check out of the Grenadines on Monday afternoon to leave early Tuesday morning, however, being 20 minutes after 4pm we were told that it was going to cost us $45ec due to overtime! Sod that… We would check out tomorrow morning instead…

Tuesday (17th Feb) morning saw James & Freya, Kat and I, once again in line to face the happy bunch that is Bequia immigration. All went according to plan with Otahi leaving a few hours before us and heading for Wallilibou in St. Vincent and us heading straight for St Lucia.

Union Island, Grenadines

We planned to leave the Tobago Cays around 9am local time and preparations went according to plan until we heard ‘Doris!’ shouted in a Swedish accent. It was Daniel of Luna who had been traveling north from Union island, our next intended destination. He dropped anchor and swung alongside for a ‘quick’ chat that ended up taking over an hour. We arranged to meet him in Bequia in the next few days and finally got underway.

A short uneventful sail (headsail only) that took us around Palm island and then finally into the Union island anchorage of Clifton. The anchorage was very busy and space limited due to the ‘roundabout’ shape of the reef but we managed to find a central spot and dropped anchor in about 10m depth. From the outset, my ‘spider senses’ were tingling and I didn’t like the feel of the place.

While cooling off and having some lunch we heard a commotion outside and found a 40ft+ yacht charging around the anchorage at ridiculous speeds (5kn+). This ‘Kiricoulis ‘ charter yacht was trying to drop anchor and before we knew it we were putting out fenders as he approached my portside beam in reverse with nobody at the helm! I shouted for someone to engage forward gear and at least try and stop before T-boning us. It was complete chaos and we managed to fend them off literally centimeters from a collision.

With the collision avoided the boat came to a standstill about 30ft away opposite us. I called out to enquire who the ‘Captain’ was at it was unclear, nobody seemed to have any idea of what they were doing. A dorky looking guy sheepishly came forward giving me a clear target for my rants to begin. I asked him what he was doing and the reply came back
Dork:‘waiting to see if we hit!’.
Me: No!… YOU are too close and I suggest you move immediately before we DO hit.
Dork: I will keep an eye, do not worry.
Me: What you are going to do - stand there all night? No! You are in my swinging circle and I am telling you we will hit so you must move before we do hit.

I will admit I lost my temper with the idiot and the above conversation is somewhat watered down but at least he acknowledged he was way to close. The remaining crew of about 5 men all went below staying out of it, they were clearly embarrassed by their ‘skipper’.

The next moment, the boat is full throttle again dragging his anchor across the bottom while lifting it up! It’s a good job the anchor didn’t snag as the resulting swing would have wiped out a number of boats! He finally dropped anchor behind me and despite stopping a few feet in front of a steel fishing trawler on a mooring buoy was happy! The trawler's mooring line passed inches from their stern and I am guessing their rudder took a beating that night.

Anyway, now ‘safe’, we sorted out the dinghy for a Rum Punch on ‘Happy island’ a small island / bar made out of Conch shells.

With it now being dark we had a quick look around the mainland and called it a night.
The next morning we lifted anchor and decided to leave for Bequia.